#52weeks52polishes - week 1

One of my favourite Danish nail bloggers resurfaced last week - Rijah/Maria from Polishing the Nails. She took a break from nail blogging two years ago but I have kept up with her on instagram where she has mostly posted a mix of beauty related pics and pictures from her private life.

She spoke about wearing polish again and what she would like to do with her blogging this time around. And she suggested a small challenge so she could keep up with doing her nails: Posting once a week, showing a polish she hadn't shown her readers before. Which I thought was a wonderful idea and I decided to hop on that challenge since I have so many untried polishes I need to wear.

So after a poll on  insta Maria decided to call the challenge #52uger52lakker which translates to 52weeks52polishes - and here we are. I am already a week or two late which is just so typically me but I am trucking along anyway.

For my first polish I decided to go deep down and trawl through my old indies. One of my favourite brands - and one I was sad to see leave the indie nail polish world - is still Dandy Nails. Considering she left three years ago her polishes are still awesome and she had perfected her formula.

I am proud to say that considering the amount of nail polish I own this is still a one-of-a-kind in my collection: Bathed in Light. A light gray with a huge amount of maroon shimmer and a dash of holographic glitter to give it some oomph when the sun comes out - so gorgeous!!!

The polish seemed to be rather sheer on the first layer, but was almost opaque in the second. But I loved the maroon shimmer so much I had to add an extra layer and ended with 3 for this mani.

The stamping polish is Moyra Metallic Gold and the stamping plate is Moyou London Arabesque

Will you join us in this challenge? If you post on instagram remember to use #52uger52lakker and #52weeks52polishes.

See you around - have a great weekend :).

Challenge Week 13: Ruffian Nails

This week has been super busy and filled with marvellous nail mail (of which I will write about in another blog post).
The challenge this week is Ruffian Nails, also known by some as Upside-down French manicure. I first heard about Ruffians two years ago, when I read a blog post at All Lacquered Up about CND's collaboration with the fashion house Ruffian at their Fall 2010 runway show. The post can be read in its entirety here: Ruffian Matte Moon Manicure.

Two days ago I got five of China Glaze's The Hunger Games polishes in the mail among which was Stone Cold, so I had no doubt that I wanted to do the Ruffian as close to the original as possible, so I could get to try that beautyful charcoal matte polish. For the gold accent I chose my favourite gold polish, nails inc. westminster abbey. I did the moons free hand though I am not really good at it. First I tried to use my dotting tool to draw up a guide line. But matte polish is really fast drying so that turned out a lumpy mess. I then got a striper and that was way better :-D - you could do it with scotch tape or manicure guides instead but they are a hit and miss for me, so I thought I might as well practice my free hand skills.

I really like the look of this though it is a bit "wobbly" here, I am very pleased with the colour combination and have to say Stone Cold is a ridiculously gorgeous matte polish.

Sorry for the slightly unfocused picture, I couldn't get my camera to focus properly here.

Another apology for the dry cuticles - I have had my hands in so much water today that no amount of creme seemed to help.

Unfortunately my nails seem much shorter with this mani, I think they look sort of cut off...

As usual I really enjoyed doing the challenge and think I will do this again, though it is not too flattering on my nails.